Planar slider test socket

Abstract

The present application is directed to a slider supporting apparatus for flying a slider of a hard disk drive in the manufacturing process to provide electrical performance characteristics. The present invention discloses an integrated design including the electrical interconnect, the gimballing mechanism, the preload mechanism and the slider supporting mechanism integrated into a single supporting structure.

Description

CLAIM OF PRIORITY[0001]This application is a continuation in part of U.S. application Ser. No. 13 / 206,384 filed Aug. 9, 2011, now U. S. Pat. No. 8,300,361 which is a continuation in part of U.S. application Ser. No. 12 / 938,055 filed Nov. 2, 2010, which claims the benefits of the filing date of U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 61 / 363,537 filed Jul. 12, 2010.BACKGROUND[0002]The present application is directed to a fly capable clamp assembly for testing magnetic recording of a substrate, and a method of making and using the same. The present method permits mechanical fly and magnetic testing of magnetic sliders used in the hard disk drive industry. This invention relates to a slider supporting apparatus for flying a slider of a hard disk drive in the manufacturing process to provide electrical performance characteristics.[0003]A disk drive head gimbal assembly (HGA) with a magnetic head is used to write and read data to and from a disk drive. Conventional magnetic heads (al...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The patent describes a new method for making slider holding assemblies that use curved springs to provide a preload force onto the slider. This preload force ensures reliable electrical contact between the slider and the fly, even under high loads. The method also includes the use of flexible electrical contacts that are plated with hard gold to enhance the electrical contact. Additionally, the patent discusses a new flexible hinge that allows for rotational movement of curved beams, which reduces the maximum stress compared to a curved beam with the same radius of curvature. Using these new methods, the resulting slider holding assembly has improved performance and reliability.

Problems solved by technology

The slider removal / reworking operation causes suspension damage, as well as pitch and roll static deformation.

The length of the spring structure cannot be increased and is limited by the size of the slider structure.

The bellows apply an undesirable out of plane moment tending to pop the slider out of the tongue due to manufacturing tolerances during the plastic forming of the bellows.

The moment can also contribute to generating pitch and roll static torque contributing to load and unload magnetic media damage and slider media contact during the slider testing.

This design presents limitations in increasing the frequency response of the system leading to a reduction in the number of zigzags which in turns limits the stroke of the design.

Minimizing the stress at the beams has lead to designing long tapered beams at the leading and trailing edge of the slider resulting in a substantially large design that adds excessive mass at the suspension end.

This mass increase reduces the frequency response of the head assembly and induces an increase of load / unload contact probability, which in turn causes frequency response deterioration.

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